Yale Art Gallery: Conversions with Wood

Event Date/Time

May 17, 2013 to Aug 18, 2013

Description

The Yale University Art Gallery (1111 Chapel Street) presents works from one of the nation’s finest collections of wood art in the exhibition Conversations with Wood: Selections from the Waterbury Collection. The exhibition features more than 70 objects from the 500 works in the collection of Minneapolis collectors Ruth and David Waterbury. Ranging from exquisitely turned wood bowls to large, sculptural pieces, these objects are complemented by select works given by the Waterburys to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Yale University Art Gallery. Conversations with Wood reflects the evolution of the field over the past 25 years, from one with a focus on the lathe and wood turning to an artistic field that now includes many more processes. The exhibition is on view from May 17 through August 18 and is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication, Conversations with Wood: The Collection of Ruth and David Waterbury.

Exhibition Overview
Artists working in wood have produced increasingly diverse examples of their craft. The first practitioners used a lathe to turn the wood while the artist shaped it; thus, the early name of “wood turning.” In the late 1990s the field came to be known as “wood art” as it began to include the various processes practiced today-carving, piercing, and painting among them.

The Waterburys have embraced the changing field of wood art and its artists since the late 1980s, collecting pieces from simple turned bowls to objects highlighting irregularities in the wood to works that explore imaginative ways to manipulate the medium. Founding members of the organization Collectors of Wood Art, the Waterburys not only have built one of the nation’s premier collections but also have given support to and forged enduring relationships with many wood artists.